Models and Theories: A Philosophical Inquiry

509 Pages·2022·5.715 MB·English

by  Roman Frigg

MODELS AND THEORIES
Models and theories are of central importance in science, and scientists spend
substantial amounts of time building, testing, comparing and revising models and
theories. It is therefore not surprising that the nature of scientific models and theories
has been a widely debated topic within the philosophy of science for many years.
The product of two decades of research, this book provides an accessible yet critical
introduction to the debates about models and theories within analytical philosophy of
science since the 1920s. Roman Frigg surveys and discusses key topics and questions,
including:
• What are theories? What are models? And how do models and theories relate to
each other?
• The linguistic view of theories (also known as the syntactic view of theories),
covering different articulations of the view, its use of models, the theory-
observation divide and the theory-ladenness of observation, and the meaning of
theoretical terms.
• The model-theoretical view of theories (also known as the semantic view of
theories), covering its analysis of the model-world relationship, the internal
structure of a theory, and the ontology of models.
• Scientific representation, discussing analogy, idealisation, and different accounts
of representation.
• Modelling in scientific practice, examining how models relate to theories and
what models are, classifying different kinds of models, and investigating how
robustness analysis, perspectivism, and approaches committed to uncertainty-
management deal with multi-model situations.
Models and Theories is the first comprehensive book-length treatment of the topic,
making it essential reading both for advanced undergraduate and graduate students,
researchers, and professional philosophers working in philosophy of science and
philosophy of technology. It will also be of interest to philosophically minded readers
working in physics, computer sciences, and STEM fields more broadly.
Roman Frigg is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and
Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
He is the winner of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation and a permanent visiting professor in the Munich Centre
for Mathematical Philosophy of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich,
Germany. His current work focuses on the nature of scientific models and theories, the
foundations of statistical mechanics, and decision making under uncertainty.

MODELS AND THEORIES
A Philosophical Inquiry
Roman Frigg
Cover image: Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Roman Frigg
The right of Roman Frigg to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.
com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non
Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Frigg, Roman, author.
Title: Models and theories : a philosophical inquiry / Roman Frigg.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000857 (print) | LCCN 2022000858 (ebook) |
Subjects: LCSH: Science—Methodology. | Science—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC Q175 .F896 2022 (print) | LCC Q175 (ebook) |
DDC 507.2/1—dc23/eng20220419
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000857
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000858
ISBN: 978-1-844-65490-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-844-65491-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28510-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003285106
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my wife Benedetta, my mother Margrit, and in memory of
my father Martin

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction 1
PART I
1 Theory and Language 15
2 Models in the Received View 46
3 Delineating the Observable 75
4 Framing the Theoretical 113
PART II
5 Thinking Through Structures 153
6 Representing With Structures 185
7 Family Ties 219
8 Beyond Structures 238
viii Contents
PART III
9 Reconsidering Representation 263
10 Analogy 289
11 Abstraction, Approximation, Idealisation 312
12 Limit Idealisations and Factor Exclusions 333
PART IV
13 Challenging Subordination 363
14 What Are Models? 393
15 Taming Abundance 430
16 The Model Muddle 464
Envoi 489
Index 492
PREFACE
Models and theories are of central importance in science. Scientists spend sub-
stantial amounts of time building, testing, comparing and revising models and
theories, and significant parts of many journal articles are concerned with explor-
ing their features. It is therefore not surprising that the nature of scientific models
and theories has been a widely debated topic within the philosophy of science
for many years. The aim of this book is to provide an accessible and yet critical
introduction to the debates about models and theories within analytical philoso-
phy of science since the 1920s. The book is intended to be intelligible to advanced
undergraduate students in philosophy, as well as to philosophically-minded scien-
tists. I hope, however, that it will also be of interest to professional philosophers.
The book presupposes no formal training, but it requires casual familiarity with
formal logic and a recollection of the broad contours of high school science. I
briefly explain logical and scientific concepts when they are first invoked, but
these explanations are intended as reminders and do not double as introductions
to the subject.
The book has been in the works for the better part of the last two decades, and
during this time I have acquired debts that are uncomfortably high. The book
has its origins in my PhD thesis, which was written under the supervision of
Nancy Cartwright and Carl Hoefer. Their support and encouragement were cru-
cial not only for completing the thesis but also for deciding to write this book.
Andreas Achen, Margherita Harris, James Nguyen, Lorenzo Sartori and James
Wills deserve gallantry awards for reading substantial parts of the manuscript
and providing comments on it. Two anonymous referees for the publisher have
provided extensive reports on the manuscript. I would like to thank them for their
careful and constructive comments, which were helpful when making revisions.
At various points in its protracted development Nancy Cartwright, Mark Colyvan,
Erik Curiel, Neil Dewar, José Díez, Stephan Hartmann, Laurenz Hudetz, David